1. SHELBY RANDALL, USA.

 

"My experience with Abhinam Yoga began in February 2017 for a few 200 hour yoga TTC. After the first few weeks, I felt myself improving mentally and physically and I felt myself opening up in ways that I wasn't able to in the past. At the time, I gave credit for these changes almost solely to my teachers, particularly Namito, the charasmatic director of the program. His words were incredibly powerful and inspiring and at the time I had no reason to question his intentions.                       

                       

During the third week of my course he asked me to join him for tea during a morning break. He said that he was impressed with my progress and that i would be a great addition to the Abhinam team when they expanded the school the following season. He then invited me to go to South Goa to see the new school location. I was apprehensive about going but over the next few days Namito had me convinced that it would be a great opportunity for my future as a yoga instructor so I agreed to go. When we arrived in South Goa I was shocked when Namito returned to the car with a bottle of wine since alcohol was  strictly prohibited during the course. I also was under the impression that we were their strictly for educational purposes. I felt increasingly more uncomfortable throughout the day as he began asking me very personal questions and was persistently trying get physically closer to me. He assured me that his efforts to get closer to me were absolutely nothing sexual but we're a merely a form of specialized therapy that I should be grateful to be receiving for free. I decided to just to try to keep myself calm and make the best if the situation but I lost it emotionally when I found out he booked a room with only one bed. I felt completely helpless and he somehow was convinced it was all my fault. The next day he continued to tell me that this was all my choice and nothing bad happened to me. I believed him". 

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2. YOKO ARAI, JAPAN

"I met Namito on the street in Dharamkot. He asked me if I do yoga, I said yes. He asked me if I would like to teach yoga in his school, so I said I'm not at that level yet. So he told me to come to his school and he said he would teach me how to teach, and that I would then be able to teach a class after 1 month. He told me to leave my boyfriend and my friends because they would interrupt me focusing on yoga. And he told me that I shouldn't make any plans because he is busy, so whenever he has time to teach me something, I should be available and ready to receive his teaching. One night he asked me to go for dinner with him. We went and he sat next to me. While we were waiting for our food he started hugging me. I was very confused; I didn't feel comfortable about it, but I couldn't say anything because so many people who practice yoga in India show love in a very open way, so I thought maybe he is like that. But after few minutes he put his hands on my chest. I said, why are you doing this? I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was something like he was checking my body, as yoga teacher and a doctor. I said that I didn't feel comfortable. He stopped doing it and food came.  

After all the classes finished, there was only me and Namito left in the school. He told me he was going to give me a private anatomy class because my English wasn't very good. He then asked me to take my shirt off. I said 'Why? I don't want to”. He then told me that Asian girls are too closed about their body and that they should be open like western women. He said unless I open my body, I can't be a good teacher. But I still said I didn't want to take my shirt off. It was already late enough and there were only two of us in the school. Then he got angry at me because I was rejecting his professional offer as a teacher or a doctor. I got angry at him as well. I then left the school. After few days he told me that my English is not good, so I should go to English school first, so I left that school". 

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3. MOLLY MAINE, UK

"I spent four months working at Abhinam Yoga from March - June 2016 on a work-exchange placement, doing their marketing in exchange for yoga teacher training. The school is run and owned by an Indian guru called Namito. People come from all over the world to train with him, and he has a good following and respect in the yoga world. The school has a solid reputation, great reviews and charges about $2,000 per course.  

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Three months’ into my time working there, I was made a ‘student coordinator’ by Namito, meaning that students could come to me to report any problems with the course. Within two weeks of being made a student coordinator, two separate incidents of sexual assault were reported to me, followed later by a third. The first two incidents were a week apart, reported to me in confidence by separate girls. Each incident involved Namito taking the girl to a bed in an isolated room at night after he had been drinking alcohol. The incidents reported to me both involved Namito using manipulative techniques to forcefully kiss, touch, remove clothes and assault the girls against their will. Both girls were upset, and they each left the course. They were given full refunds by Namito. I confronted Namito about these cases, which he denied. However, my instincts told me that he was lying; I had witnessed his drunken behaviour on both nights in question and I believe that the girls had no reason to lie. I had also witnessed many occasions over the four months where Namito had been very ‘touchy-feely’ with girls on the courses and where girls had mentioned to me on a number of occasions that they felt uncomfortable in his presence. I left the school that day and did not complete my teacher training as a result.  

Having worked with Namito for four months I was very disappointed. I had come to trust and respect him and thought of him as my teacher and looked up to him. I had learned a lot from him and I had undoubtedly progressed under his guidance. Leaving him, therefore, was a hard decision, however the evidence in my opinion was too strong to deny.  

The yoga school is registered with the Yoga Alliance, an international organisation representing yoga schools and teachers. The Yoga Alliance is supposed to regulate schools and teachers, therefore people will often pay more to go to a YA certified school. After leaving, I wrote to the Yoga Alliance to report the incidents, and I got a very disappointing reply (see evidence attached). They said that they do not have the resources in place to deal with ‘routine grievances’ and suggested I address my concerns with the school directly. There was no one I could report this to at the school, as Namito owns the school." 

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4. Natalia S., Norway

 

Short account of events during the YTTC at Abhinam Yoga School in Goa in March - April 2017

 

My name is Natalia. I attended a 200 hr TTC at the Abhinam Yoga School in Goa in March – April 2017. This is a short account of the events, which have taken place during this course and after it.  

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The first two weeks of the course went without any major incidents reported. After this, it was reported that Yog Namito, the head teacher of the school, an Indian male of about 50, had sexually assaulted two female students from our group, one of which was MUCH younger than him (18 years old). Also, he repeatedly engaged in other anti-yogic behaviours (smoking, alcohol consumption, meat consumption etc.), which were the direct opposite of what he told our group about himself and required of us, his students.  

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Also, he presented himself as a still practicing orthopedic surgeon, who is still treating patients. However, at our anatomy classes, he showed himself incapable of teaching anatomy and answering our anatomy-relating questions. When the group found it suspicious and demanded to see a proof of his medical education, the school admin could not show us anything. They told us that in fact, he stopped treating patients for 8 years ago. Also, they said they could not provide us the proof of his academic qualifications. We were informed that even the Yoga Alliance had never asked to see this, even when they gave Abhinam the licence to run TTCs. In spite of this, the school advertised his “medical qualifications” on their website and Yoga Alliance website, thus illegally attracting students based on these false and non-validated claims. Also, many students were attracted to his school because of his claims stating that he is a disciple of such great masters as Swami Satyananda, B.K.S. Iyengar and J. Krishnamurti. Our group have never been shown evidence that he actually studied from these great masters, and there is every reason to believe that these claims are as fake as his medical qualifications. The former were never validated by the YA US, but in spite of this, advertised on their website and the school’s website, attracting students.  

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During our classes and other contact with him, Yog Namito behaved like a master of psychological abuse. He openly expressed anger and dissatisfaction when the students asked questions, thus making us afraid to ask any questions at his classes. In addition, he put several female students in inappropriate situations, allowing him to move from psychological to physical/sexual abuse.

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In addition to the above, Yog Namito, as well as the other teachers from the school, did not provide their students a safe practice. On several occasions, a number of students were complaining about back and shoulder pains as a result of the intense practice. Also, they could not provide any advice on the safe practice and posture modifications for the safe practice with different injuries. For example, one of the students came to Namito with a hip injury that caused hip and low back pain. They approached him at least 5 times over the 2 weeks they spent there and Yog Namito could not provide any advice. At first, he guessed a different hip condition then asked the student if it was their rotator cuff. No teachers at the school could provide advice on practicing with this injury.  

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When this came out, our group confronted the school admin (Ansh) about this in the presence of Maki and Deepika, the other two teachers. We demanded that Namito should stop teaching and leave the school, otherwise we were not willing to continue the TTC. Ansh assured us that he will leave and never return and that they will find a new anatomy teacher. He encouraged us to complete the course without Namito. Most people agreed to continue, however, some students decided to leave the course. The school removed Namito’s medical qualifications from their webpage.  

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A day or so after this, a girl from our group who confronted Ansh, speaking on behalf of the group, got robbed under suspicious circumstances. Almost nothing was stolen apart from a little bit of cash. Earlier, Ansh had assured me that the area where the school is located is crime-free and you can sleep with the windows open. At this point, one more student decided to leave the course.

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After this, the dust settled for a while and we completed the course, getting our certificates. Namito was not there and the school admin found a new anatomy teacher. However, the new head teacher, who took over when Namito left, behaved in a very cold, unloving and unauthentic way toward our group. As an example, she was dressed in black for our graduation ceremony, and the school did not even provide a cake to celebrate this normally happy occasion (which we know had been done at the previous TTCs).  

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Unfortunately, more problems waited for us when we returned home and tried to register our certificates with Yoga Alliance US. First, they were declined by the school, explaining that Maki was not authorised to sign certificates. Some people from our group double checked with Abhinam’s ex-students and their certificates, which were registered on YA, were also signed by Maki. Many of us contacted Ansh for explanation, but he referred to some sort of "technical problem" and said we needed to wait. We waited for several weeks, and nothing happened. Some of us had very unhelpful conversations with Ansh on Facebook Messenger, and the only reasonable thing he said was that we need to wait. After this, several people from our group sent complaints to Yoga Alliance US, informing them of what happened during our course and asking them to investigate the school. At first, our Yoga Alliance contact, Leigh Evans, assured us that this would be resolved soon and we would soon get our certificates registered. They registered a grievance and said they would investigate it. However, after several weeks of waiting, the YA informed us that they had decided to give Abhinam the right to determine whether to confirm our certificates or not. We are not sure they have done proper investigation as none of us was contacted to provide more information. When some of us tried to register with YA US again after this decision, the school declined again, saying that they would not accept them as graduates and accusing these students of drug abuse, sexually harassing the teachers, disrespectful behaviours toward the teachers etc. Our group can confirm that these accusations are lies and these things never happened during the course. Some of us went back to YA US, informing them of this, but they refused to do anything.  

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As per today, the school has only confirmed the certificates of the two students from the 300-hour course, which was running in parallel with our 200 hr course. These were registered at the end of the course, while these students were still there. One of these students could not speak very good English and asked for their help with registration. They did help her, at the same time writing a fake positive review in her name on the YA US webpage. Later, this student contacted YA to ask this review removed, but they did not do anything about it. Also, one of the students paid Abhinam his YA registration fee of about 100 USD at the end of the course, asking them to help with the registration. They promised to help but then rejected his certificate and refuse to return the money.  

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Also, Namito returned to the school right after our 200 hr TTC was finished, and continues teaching students.

Based on the experiences described above, I mean that the proper course of action would be to:

1. Cancel the Abhinam Yoga School license for running TTCs in all locations, to prevent further damage to other students who are considering taking their TTC there

2. Blacklist Yog Namito from teaching and getting any kind of YA licence for ever

3. Refund all the members of our group the fees they have paid for this TTC

4. Make changes to the way Yoga Alliance works, turning it into an organisation which actually can MAKE SURE that their YA Registry code of conduct is followed by RYTs and TAKE ACTION to protect the students when these are violated by RYTs."

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5. KATIE GREENGRASS, NEW ZEALAND

 

"I participated in 200 hour YTT in March 2017, with Abhinam Yoga School, in Morjim, Goa. 

Online, the school claimed that their 'Guru' Namito is an orthopaedic surgeon. It quickly became clear that this was not the case upon arrival as he could not answer even the most basic of anatomy based questions, would get easily angered when asked to provide an explanation on statements he had made (such as: it is safe to go below 90 degrees when in chaturanga dandasana) & when he was supposed to be teaching anatomy, would instead talk in length about meditation.

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If anyone dared to question him he would instantly become aggressive. 

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Aside from this, on the first day of the third week of our course, it came to light that two female students from our course whom had both spent alone time with Namito, had been mentally manipulated by him (such as: he would tell them their sexual chakra is blocked) and had booked hotel rooms with only one bed & tried to give them alcohol, as well as touching them in a sexually suggestive manner (massage & stroking). Both of the girls stories were almost exactly the same. One girl had already left the course (18 or 19 year old American) and the other decided to leave that day. 

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Upon finding out this information, the rest of us were naturally outraged and I led a confrontation with the teachers on this topic but also with regards to Namito not being a doctor (we wanted proof). Deepika (Indian, philosophy teacher) cried and defended her Guru (she is completely devoted to him), Maki (not her real name, but what we were told to call her - Japanese, head Asana teacher) did not say a word and sat there stone faced, and Ansh (software engineer - the businessman) totally denied any knowledge of this happening, assured us he would investigate & provide us with answers for not only the inappropriate sexual behaviour but also prove he was a doctor. He assured us Namito would not return to the business if these claims were true. 

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Most students continued on, a few left with refunds provided. 

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As a side note, That night I was robbed in my sleep, with my travel wallet appearing to have been stolen upon first inspection. I was extremely upset & ran upstairs to Ansh's room. My room mate left for morning practice and did not see my travel documents outside, but 10 minutes later Ansh returned with all my things saying he had found them outside on the ground. However, nothing was covered in sand as it should have been, had they been found where he claimed, and my room mate surely would have seen them. 

The next two weeks continued with Namito not returning whilst the 200 hour course continued, and everything seemed to go reasonably smoothly with a substitute anatomy teacher coming in to fill the void. The teachers seemed a little cold towards us but nothing too extreme. 

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Ansh never provided us with answers, each time somebody asked he would make an excuse about why he couldn't provide it right now, but it would come tomorrow etc. To this day, any contact with him leads to the same outcome - an assurance of answers (in a few days) and then never a response. 

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On our last day, as 5 of us left to continue travelling together, and we saw that Namito had returned to the school and all staff were together with him, looking very happy. 

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After all of this, the school has blocked us from registering with the Yoga Alliance (whom have explicitly stated they refuse to do anything about our situation), and also when Maki signed our certificates her signature differed from what was on record, causing double problems. 

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We want it known that these people are essentially thieves. They look great online but all of these claims are lies (Namito also claims to be a lifelong student of two of the great yoga masters of our recent times - BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois). I chose this school because of the claim that Namito was a doctor, and also the good reviews that we now know to be fake".

 

5. TATIANA BERENSHTAM, RUSSIA

 

"I attended a teacher training course at Abhinam Yoga School in 2015. There I met the main teacher and owner Namito. The following happened during the course:

 

1) Namito proclaimed himself an operating surgeon, however, during his classes of anatomy it became clear that he is not a doctor as he lacked basic knowledge

 

2) All classes on the philosophy of yoga were conducted from the position of sex and Osho

 

3) Namito has shown himself as incompetent in revisions, asana adjustments and explanations during the classes

 

4) Namito pestered several female students with sexual innuendoes and proposals, and if they refused, he behaved rudely

 

5) During the certification, Namito blackmailed the students - if they do not write a good review about the school, he will not confirm our certificates in Yoga Alliance. He behaved inadequately, aggressively and hysterically.

 

Please take appropriate action in relation to him and his school, which is in Dharamkot and in Goa." 

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6. ELENA KORNEVA, RUSSIA

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"I took a 300 TTC at Abhinam yoga school in March-April 2017 and to put it very mildly it turned out to be a big disappointment, waste of time and money and here is why:

 

- First of all the declared 300 hour program is simply a fraud. I came to deepen my knowledge but they put all the 200 hour and 300 hour students together and 300 hour students have to study absolutely the same once again. They promised to separate the students later but that never happened. After 4 weeks when 200 hour students finished their training they simply kept us for 3 more days (instead of declared 5 weeks) for self-study and self-practice plus gave us a few information on basic anatomy and Ayurveda. Also I have to mention that when we started our program there were a few students from previous 200 TTC who continued their training and almost all of them had injuries despite the fact that the school claimed to focus on correct alignment and teach yoga injury free. 

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From what I saw, heard and learnt the teachers at Abhinam yoga school are not qualified and they don't have enough knowledge to teach. 

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First of all the founder of the school Namito who claimed to be an orthopedic surgeon and disciple of B.K.S. Iyengar failed to provide any proof of his medical background as well as to answer any anatomy questions and there were a lot of students including me who chose this school due to this information on their website ( later the school removed this information from the website).

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Namito came and left whenever he wanted to not letting other staff members any idea of his plans. Sometimes we had to wait for him for hours and adjust the schedule. Sometimes other teachers started a lesson then had to stop to give way to Namito all together with subject change. He was very moody, paid attention only to young beautiful ladies, lied us in the face about being vegan (he was noticed in the restaurants consuming meat and alcohol), about being practicing orthopedic surgeon in between yoga teacher trainings. Often he became very angry and agressive when students asked him anatomy questions which he could not answer. He also liked way to much hugging meditations in the evening after classes and to stay during dinner and talk to pretty female students about his personal life, asking inappropriate questions, behaving very unprofessional.  

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Another teacher Deepika claimed that everything she knew she learnt from Namito (he was her only source of knowledge) and she taught us yoga philosophy very superficially.  

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- After first two weeks there was a scandal involving a young girl who left the course and Namito. I am not going to describe the details here as everything I heard was from third party but at this point the course was put on hold and nobody wanted to continue to listen to Namito's lectures. So some students decided to leave the course and take a refund, others decided to stay on condition that Namito is not going to be a part of this course. So, Namito did not come back, Deepika and Maki had to finish our training how they could. The school had to invite a substitute anatomy teacher on our demand but he only gave us a few classes and the program was not covered in full.  

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- In the end they gave us certificates and even organised something like graduating ceremony (we all have a lot a photos confirming it) but later when we tried to register through Yoga Alliance they refused to confirm our certificates accusing us in faking the certificates, inappropriate behaviour and other fictional actions ( I will forward the letter with refusal which I received). Now I understand why the school looked so great online with all the good reviews - the school only confirmed certificates to three students whom they registered themselves on spot and at the same time the school made the fake reviews.  

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Overall, I have learnt much more about yoga life style, philosophy, anatomy, pranayama and meditation in a very professional way and healthy psychological environment during my previous 200 hour TCC with another school than during this 300 TTC aT Abhinam Yoga Centre."

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7. MARNI BUTLER, CANADA. 

Attended Abhinam Yoga school in March 2016.

 

"During my time at Abhinam Yoga School I experienced a vast array of disturbing encounters, and observations of Namito, the primary teacher and owner of Abhinam. It is unfortunate that my experience at my 300 level teacher training has been tainted due to his actions. I feel incredibly ripped off and discouraged by Yoga Alliance due to the lack of support and follow up with many of the concerns voiced after our training. In addition I am deeply troubled with the lack of background check into studio’s and teachers. The fact that Namito’s credentials were not fact checked is unacceptable.

 

The primary reason for attending this school instead of the wide variety of other schools offered in the area was Namito’s apparent experience as an orthopedic surgeon. However it quickly became apparent that Namito lacked any knowledge in the subject during our anatomy classes. Namito did not know how to answer many of the students questions regarding anatomy. Instead of teaching us himself, he referred us to youtube pages. Although I believe youtube is a great platform to offer supplementary education, it should not be the primary source especially if we have paid for the course and expected exceptional insight into the subject. Another student looked into his medical background and could not find any legitimate medical credentials. When my husband, a fellow student at Abinham asked for his credentials he got defensive and could not offer them.

 

Namito exuded an air of self-righteousness and egotism from the moment I met him. His complete disrespect for the women who worked alongside him was disheartening. He used the two female teachers as regular props to conduct the poses he wanted to teach and talked down to them in front of the students when they didn’t meet his expectations. His co-teacher Maki would cower in his presence.

 

When Namito was teaching yoga asana’s he would often push students in an aggressive way. He regularly drew student’s attention to someone when they were doing something incorrect, not in a helpful way to teach but in a way to humiliate them. This created an unsafe and unsupportive environment for students to learn, both emotionally and physically. I personally got injured when Namito chose to forcefully press down on me when in a forward fold, despite my protests. This injury took weeks to fully heal.

 

In addition to his lack of knowledge and pompous attitude, Namito blatantly did not practice what he preached. At the start of the course, Namito was very clear that excessive drinking and doing drugs during the course would not be tolerated. Unfortunately the students witnessed Namito getting very drunk and smoking weed during a night of celebration. Although I believe balance is crucial, the way he went about these actions made everyone feel awkward in his presence.

 

The most troubling issue with Namito was the sexual harassment that was so blatant and destructive. There was a complete abuse of power from Namito as people feared him but at the same time wanted to please him due to the end goal of being certified by him. I will outline several instances I had with Namito that made my skin crawl and should not be overlooked.

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Namito would regularly attempt to get girls alone with him. He asked one girl to go on a camping trip to a nearby island on our day off in which he told her they could work on “tantra yoga”.

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I witnessed him on multiple occasions get uncomfortably close to girls, brushing or cupping their face while feed them inappropriate compliments. I literally watched girls squirm away from his contact.

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When celebrating one of the student’s birthdays at a restaurant in the evening, Namito took a student aside, walking them towards the beach to get privacy. Upon their return 30-45 minutes later, the girl seemed shakened up, not talking or making eye contact with the other students at the table. When I saw her the following day and asked her about it she said, “Namito is one strange guy”. She explained that he was trying to teach her tantric practices involving the moon and holding each other in moonlight.

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Namito conducted his 300 hour yoga philosophy course in a side room of the studio where 4 girls were expected to sit with him on his bed. This was uncomfortable and an inappropriate venue for a teaching space.

 

I believe that if Yoga Alliance’s primary role is to ensure credibility and safety in the practice of yoga that they are failing. There have been multiple complaints made to Yoga Alliance about Abhinam and Namito and the response from the representative was offensive in their complete lack of empathy and legitimate support. If Yoga Alliance is unable to take these allegations and concerns seriously, what is their role?"

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8. AMELIE MOGWITZ, GERMANY. Yoga teacher training in Abhinam Yoga School, Goa, India, April 2017.

 

"After coming home from my travel and yoga teacher training in India, its really challenging to answer the question “How was it?”. “I made many experiences and most of them I didn’t expect that I have to experience that.” Abhinam Yoga school is a big business, a criminal club. The Internet is lying and that’s awful because in these days people try to find answers, for example in finding out which yoga school to pick. I mean, I already heard of Indian Gurus who behave unmoral and act like in a sect leader and people are following, and know I could see and feel it on my own. This is just disgusting. 

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In the first days Namito brought us to our own borders. We practiced physically really hard, no consideration to different health and fitness. Once he came inside while we did our Primary Series and we had to stand with arms up for 15 minutes, he was walking between us and shouting if people got weak. I mean, it somehow felt good to feel the pain after working out this much. Meanwhile, we did some Exercises which are really emotional and psychological intense. People were crying, things are coming up, we were entering states, opening doors in ourselves. For these experiences you need a safe place and space, because you get really vulnerable and sensible. He told us that we can come to him and talk, that he will help us. After the third day, when the 12 hours day ended with Mantra chanting and hugging meditation I had this inner resistance towards him, I had a weird feeling when he entered the room, I saw something in his eyes which made me feel uncomfortable. Then things came up and I was not to surprised. 

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Namito is a psychopathic man, he is manipulative, he does sexual harassment, he plays a really smart game. Everyone who is part of the School (Deepika, Maaki, Ansh…) are part of this big lie they are setting up. They are under Namito's power and they are not able to break out. What they are selling is totally antithetical to how they are acting. This has nothing to do with Yoga. Its so sad to see these poor souls. And its so frustrating to see that this happens since many years and this school still exists. So much injustice in this world which is lead from powerful dirty people. And Yoga Alliance is a business place as well, not carrying at all about whats going on behind the facades. People- wake up and don’t look away."

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9. THEA ANDERSEN, DENMARK

"I attended a 200 hours teacher training course at Abhinam Yoga School in march 2017. I spoke to Namito on the phone before signing up for the course where he told me he was a doctor. The fact he was a doctor was one of the reasons why I chose the school because I thought the anatomy classes would be really well taught and the yoga classes safe with a minimum risk of getting injured.

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I quickly found out that that was not the case. In the first two weeks only one or two of the planned anatomy classes were actual anatomy classes. The rest were spent listening to the same Osho philosophy over and over again. In the one anatomy class we had we learned about the hip joint and when a girl asked a simple yes or no question about the shoulder joint Namito got mad instead of just answering the question or saying that we were going to learn that later and I had a bad feeling afterwards which could have easily have been avoided if he had just acted more calm. I find that it was a very unprofessional way of teaching a class of students who are sincerely interested in learning the things he is saying. He kept avoiding questions and talking about philosophy instead and at some point some of us seriously began, and still do, doubt that he is a doctor. We wanted proof of some kind that he was but never got any. At the end of week two things got really bad and there were very serious accusations against Namito. Accusations of sexual harassment. A girl who had only just turned 18 before coming had left the course around 10 days in and for some reason was accompanied by Namito on her flight to Mumbai where he, from what I heard, tried to get her to drink alcohol and when they arrived in Mumbai there was only one hotel room with one bed. So basically Namito tried to get the 18 year old girl to sleep with him. When this came out another girl who had joined the 200 hr. ttc the month before said that the same thing had happened to her and a student who did her 200 hr. ttc last year said that a female student had left the course because Namito also had harassed her. I have only heard the above from people who have talked to the girls who was harassed. I talked to a girl from our group who said that he had also been inappropriate towards her. They had gone to a tree somewhere to meditate and then he started asking to her love and sex life. Our other two teachers spend a lot of time trying to convince us that sometimes people, even yogis, make mistakes. But this is not a mistake. Nobody continuously sexually harasses females by mistake. Namito deliberately sexually harasses female students and as another student said, he sure can tell you who has a boyfriend/girlfriend but not why you have back or shoulder pain.

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As for the pain, I went home with lower back pain and pain in the groin probably due to the very intense practice with few modifications from day one."

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10. KEVIN MCCONNACH, CANADA

 

"From day one of my Yoga Teacher Training with Namito I started to suspect he was a fraud. It was very obvious to me that Namito had next to no experience with Asana's and even his understanding of Yoga Philosophy seemed sketchy to say the least. And Namito just flat out did not know how to teach Anatomy...when asked any questions on the subject he would tell us to research it ourselves or would refer us to Depika (his co-teacher).

 

Namito's lack of understanding about anatomy and yoga put all of the students in danger of injury. Namito aggressively insisted that we push ourselves into postures that our body could not handle and many students suffered injuries from this. I think I speak for everyone when I say that not doing things Namito's way was intimidating because it seemed like he would kick us out of the course (or worse) if we did not live up to his expectations.

 

Namito failed to "practice what he preached" on numerous occasions. I witnessed Namito eating meat, smoking cigarettes, getting drunk, and smoking marijuana on multiple occasions. This was bizarre to experience because he had threatened to kick us out of the course for any of these infractions. Namito even missed a full day of teaching because he was so drunk the night before (he said he had the flu, but we all know it was a hangover).

 

When I became suspicious of Namito's claim that he was a surgeon, I asked him to show me his medical qualifications. Namito responded "I hope you get it...you F.B." (not sure what that means). He then threatened to sue me for harassment - despite the fact that I just asked him politely, in a private conversation, for medical qualifications that he claimed to have (in person and on his website). Namito also messaged my wife with these threats.

 

During our training, the conversations amongst students outside of class was largely focused on Namito's behaviour towards the younger girls in our course. Many of us were very uncomfortable with the way that Namito looked at, touched, and communicated with the girls. It is difficult to put into words the behaviour that I witnessed, but it was enough that all of my peers were concerned enough to discuss it with each other regularly. I personally made efforts to ensure that my wife (fiance at the time) was never left alone with the man because it was obvious that he could not be trusted. Is it not crazy that I couldn't trust my yoga instructor to be alone with my fiance?

 

At the end of the day, I feel ripped off by Abinham. They lied all over their website to entice us in, but as soon as we arrived in India the lies started to become apparent. The #1 reason we chose Abinham was because of Namito's medical history, but my research has since shown no evidence of him every being a doctor.

 

Lucky for us, we were not victims to Namito's sexual advances, but many of my peers were not so lucky. The Yoga Alliance needs to step up and do the right thing before more innocent Yogi's are injured financially, or much worse; physically/sexually. There are literally students AT THIS VERY MOMENT who are under Namito's supervision that are at such high risk of being hurt by Namito - and I think the Yoga Alliance is responsible for these infractions if they do not take action immediately. If student's safety is not the #1 concern of the Yoga Alliance, then I don't see the point of the alliance at all."

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11. ANONYMOUS STATEMENT #1  

March 2017 I attended a 200hr YTT at Abhinam School in Goa. 

Part 1: 

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I was attracted to this school by the online description that it was a Yoga Alliance certified school, advertising that it was founded by a Medical Doctor, Namito, who was also a student of Iyengar.

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The school advertised that it heavily focused on teaching anatomy, and used Iyengar alignment for the Ashtanga yoga primary series.  

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Throughout the two weeks I spent in the program, the not one teacher of the program asked the class about any existing injuries to be aware of. I approached Namito, a self-proclaimed orthopedic hip surgeon, at least 5 times about a condition that I suffer from which affects my hips. Each time, he replied with a simple yes or no answer and nodded me off without any consultation. I was beginning to suffer more pain from practicing under these conditions. When I requested to see proof that he was a medical doctor, Anch, the manager, told me that Yoga Alliance never required any proof, so they did no have any.

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The night that I decided to leave the school, I had a phone conversation with Namito while he was out of town and he wanted me to hear his side of a disturbing sexual and psychological abuse case that came to me first hand (I will visit this later on). I ASKED NAMITO WHAT MY INJURY WAS, AND AFTER DIVERTING THE QUESTION HE GUESSED INCORRECTLY. A "hip expert" couldn't remember my hip condition which I approached him about 5 times in two weeks. His second guess to my condition was my rotator cuff. totally clueless.  

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This school is founded by a dangerous sexual predator who is very manipulative and lied about his credentials.  

From day one of the practice, students were forced to visit intense positions such as wheel pose without sufficient background in safety or anatomical teachings. I witnessed multiple injuries occur related to back-pain.  

in the two weeks I studied at this school, we only spent a total of maybe 4 hours in two days "learning" anatomy. one of these sessions were self taught. the other namito simply read the information from our handbook.

 

Part 2:

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More about the sexual predator part next:  

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My 18 year old roommate made arrangements to leave the school. Her mother asked Namito to show her some of India before going back to the US having had a bad experience. She was accepted into the intensive program with only ever experiencing a few yoga classes in her gym.  

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Namito agreed to take her to the Taj Mahal, as he was going to Delhi on business anyway.  

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He paid extra for her to sit next to him on the airplane. On this trip he psychologically abused her to a point that she questioned her sanity. He asked inappropriate questions about her love life and the absence of a father. He talked about visiting her in the US, taking her on vacation to California, and told her he wanted to be her father figure. He talked about how much money he had. when she felt uncomfortable he would act angry. He identified actions she was doing and told her they were wrong, but it is because she is from the West, or because she didn't have a father growing up... every angle of psychological abuse he played. He touched her face and told her she was beautiful. She described the experience as feeling suffocated. she was extremely uncomfortable.  

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When they landed, he suggested buying a bottle of wine. she laughed assuming it was a joke, then he responded sternly and pressured her to drink alcohol with him until she responded in tears with a no. he used this as another opportunity to psychologically abuse her and said she shouldnt drink because she is too emotional.  

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By the time they arrived to the hotel, the student felt so abused and confused and weakened and out of her element in this foreign country she didn't know what to say to the staff when they only handed them one room key. She asked Namito why they only had one key and he told her the hotel was sold out (a very large upscale hotel). He later told me that he forgot to book another room. either way, he committed an illegal act of sharing a hotel room with the opposite sex while not married. He told her she shouldnt go find a different hotel in the middle of the night because it wasnt safe. when they got to the room, there was only one bed! The young student was so abused and broken down at this point she curled up in a ball and tried to sleep. Namito stripped down to his underwear and shared the bed with her. He told her not to tell her mother or anyone. He also told her before they left for the trip not to tell anyone she was going with him. She had already told me. She realized that he had planned to drink alcohol and share the bed with her.  

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The next morning the Student decided to fly straight back to the US instead of going to the Taj Mahal or spending any more time near Namito. When she told him this he called her crazy, told her Anch said she was crazy, she was the craziest girl he'd ever met.  

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It was less expensive to fly home from GOA, so she came back to our room late that night where she shared her experience first hand with me. She flew back to the US the next morning while we were in class and no one has been able to contact her since.  

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I suffered emotionally the next day with this information. what should I do? how would i feel when i saw him again? how would I act? She had asked me not to tell the teachers or other students, except one girl I was aloud to tell.  

The following day I ran into the girl that i was aloud to confide in, she was at a table with two other female students. I slowly leaked some details of this event to clear my conscious and before going too far, one of the girls at the table admitted she went through a very similar situation.

  

Namito singled her out, had her open up about personal issues, then used them against her in his emotional/ psychological abuse. He told her he wanted her to be a yoga teacher for him at their school in South Goa. She thought it would be a day trip when he told her he wanted to bring her to see the school. she was instructed not to tell anyone she was going anywhere with him. their daytrip turned into an overnight trip where alcohol was pressured, and consumed, after which point the interaction was more forcefully physical. she was abused to the point that she felt she had no say in the sleeping accommodations. and was also tricked into sharing a bed. he offered a massage. the night ended in tears and further psychological abuse for the female student.  

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We had also all witnessed him targeting another student, offering her an "internship" in dharmasala. where she could live with him for 6 months. She was isolated and asked personal questions.  

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after knowing of a second incident, I went straight to Anch and demanded a refund before my negativity ruined the experience for everyone. I could not participate in the program any longer, no doubt in my mind. He quickly offered me anything I wanted, and asked me to not speak to any other students. He did his best to separate me from the group, I didn't even know that 2 other girls had decided to leave the program and was preparing to travel alone.  

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I was refunded my 1900 in US cash $100 dollar bills that they had on hand. They had me sign an agreement which stated that I would not write a bad review and I was leaving on peaceful terms. I had verbally agreed that I would not write a bad review IF NAMITO was not part of the school. I had them revise the agreement to include that clause.  

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I have a photo of the agreement if requested.   

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The entire class suffered by physchological abuse by the fact that they were all afraid to ask questions. If you asked an anatomy question, you would be yelled at instead of answered. everyone just decided to interact with him as little as possible, instead of seeking or demanding the information that we were promised."

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12. ANONYMOUS STATEMENT #2

 

"This is a statement of the experiences i did during and after my 200 hours Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga TTC from the 20th march till the 14th april 2017 at Abhinam Yoga school in Morjim, Goa.

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We had three teachers, namely Namito, Deepika Chalke and Maki Shunyo. Namito was also there for teaching us anatomy.

After two weeks, some girls from our group heard from other girls, that Namito tried to get an sexual relation with them and it was said that he sexually harassed them. After this event, we had a group meeting with all students from our course, Deepika, Maki, and Ansh (business develop manager). Ansh told us that Namito feels sorry for the incidents. We asked them to suspend Namito from the course and they promised us to do so and take his name off the website. After this meeting, some of us left the school, but the rest finished their TTC. They changed Namitos text on the website by taking out the part which said that he is a medical doctor, but they dindt take him from their website, so he officially stayed involved in the school. We got a new and very good Anatomy teacher for the last two weeks. For the last two weeks the atmosphere felt a bit strange, especially after one of us students ot robbed in her room in the night.

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However, we all graduated and got our certificates signed by Maki during a ceremony at the end of our TTC.

On the last day of the TTC, we were just busy leaving the premises, when we saw Namito coming back to the school.  

After our TTC, some of us, me included, tried to register with Yoga Alliance US. For registration, they need a valid certificate and the school has to approve the application. Also, the applicants are asked to write a review of their TTC in order to get registered. Abhinam school offered some of us to do the registration for them. So some of us paid the school 100 dollar, which is the registration fee for Yoga Alliance. It came out, that the school wrote reviews in the name of the applicants, without their agreement.

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When the rest of us tried to register, it didnt work. The reason was that the signature on our certificates is not valid.

So we got in contact with Yoga Alliance and they asked us to give them some time, because they had an ongoing case with the shool, but that our application will be approved soon. We also informed Yoga Alliance about the incidents which happened during our TTC.

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After we tried to register a second time, our applications got declined again. This time the school gave different reasons and invented stories about our behaviour, which are not true. I felt very upsed beeing accused of those things I never did and which are not true. At the same time, Yoga Alliance wrote us, that they decided to leave the school the final decision to determine whether to issue a certificate of completion to their students.

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This seems very strange, because we actually got our certificates on our last day of the TTC."

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13. ANONYMOUS STATEMENT #3

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Personal Experience at Abhinam March 2017-April 2017 

 

We began each day at 5:15 am with a 3-hour yoga session:

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-1 hour of extremely intense breathing techniques (kriyas for experts, not beginners). I believe Kriyas can be beneficial if you have a TEACHER who starts from the basics (i.e. pranayama) – I told Namito several times early in the morning when I attempted Kapalabhati, I had constrictions in my lower stomach and couldn’t breathe properly during or after this technique. He advised me to keep pushing through the pain. At this point I still believed he was a “doctor” and knew what he was talking about, so I followed his instructions. 6 months after the course and I’m still experiencing troubles with my breathing; often not being able to take a full breath into my belly. I also experienced bruising on my stomach right after I left the course (I have photos). There’s no explanation for these bruises as there was no direct impact to that region of my body. I believe it to be from the intense Kriyas he had us perform and/or traumatic experience at Abhinam expressing itself through my skin.  

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2 hour Ashtanga class (where Namito instructed us to wear as little clothing as possible for the teachers to be able to “view our muscles and adjust our positioning easier”) then followed by 1 hour mantra chanting.  

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After the first week of extremely intense training, I was experiencing emotions arising, supposedly due to kriyas. I had been crying on and off Saturday morning and wasn’t sure why/what was triggering this (maybe somewhere deep down I knew I shouldn’t have been there) when Namito pulled me aside after class and asked if I was okay. I told him what I was experiencing and he asked if we could chat at break that afternoon. Initially I thought, “of course – this teacher has my best interest and I travelled all this way to get advice from a doctor who’s trained under Iyengar and Pattabi Jois.”  

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I was caught off-guard when he told me he was taking me to a Banyan tree about 20 minutes away from the studio. Not honouring my instincts, I went with him to the tree. First, he asked to take a few photos of me posing by the tree (which made me beyond uncomfortable) and was sharing with me how much money he makes. After, he asked me to share ‘my story’ - what I like/dislike about myself, my childhood and relationship with my dad. Then, the question of the hour... “What’s your sex life like? (ridiculing the West and their conservative approach to monogamy/sex in general). Your relationship with men? You know, you could really enhance your femininity with a beautiful Indian dress and putting on some makeup.” It became EXTRA clear in this moment there was an ulterior motive behind him taking me to ‘talk.’ I told him immediately that there would be absolutely nothing happening between him and I, where he countered with a lie and said “there’s never been anything between him ‘a guru’ and one of his disciples. I asked if we could go back to the school and tried to keep my distance the following week. The next week he offered me an internship with him for the next 6 months, telling me this type of grounding/security is what I need right now in my life.  

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Sunday night before Week 3 begins, a few of the girls pull me aside to inform me of two girls who have first hand experienced psychological abuse from Namito. They wanted to tell me because they noticed he took favour in me from the beginning. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep one minute that night or the remaining 2 weeks. Our group came together and decided if we were going to finish the course, Namito wasn’t to return for the remaining 2 weeks and be removed from the school. The last 2 weeks were filled with lies from Ansh, the “manager” and the other two brainwashed female teachers justifying Namito’s actions. This man must be stopped, as I and many, many other people have experienced traumatic experiences.

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14. ANONYMOUS STATEMENT #4

 

"This is a statement of the experiences i did during and after my 200 hours Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga TTC from the 20th march till the 14th april 2017 at Abhinam Yoga school in Morjim, Goa.

​

We had three teachers, namely Namito, Deepika Chalke and Maki Shunyo. Namito was also there for teaching us anatomy.

After two weeks, some girls from our group heard from other girls, that Namito tried to get an sexual relation with them and it was said that he sexually harassed them. After this event, we had a group meeting with all students from our course, Deepika, Maki, and Ansh (business develop manager). Ansh told us that Namito feels sorry for the incidents. We asked them to suspend Namito from the course and they promised us to do so and take his name off the website. After this meeting, some of us left the school, but the rest finished their TTC. They changed Namitos text on the website by taking out the part which said that he is a medical doctor, but they dindt take him from their website, so he officially stayed involved in the school. We got a new and very good Anatomy teacher for the last two weeks. For the last two weeks the atmosphere felt a bit strange, especially after one of us students ot robbed in her room in the night.

​

However, we all graduated and got our certificates signed by Maki during a ceremony at the end of our TTC.

On the last day of the TTC, we were just busy leaving the premises, when we saw Namito coming back to the school.  

After our TTC, some of us, me included, tried to register with Yoga Alliance US. For registration, they need a valid certificate and the school has to approve the application. Also, the applicants are asked to write a review of their TTC in order to get registered. Abhinam school offered some of us to do the registration for them. So some of us paid the school 100 dollar, which is the registration fee for Yoga Alliance. It came out, that the school wrote reviews in the name of the applicants, without their agreement.

​

When the rest of us tried to register, it didnt work. The reason was that the signature on our certificates is not valid.

So we got in contact with Yoga Alliance and they asked us to give them some time, because they had an ongoing case with the shool, but that our application will be approved soon. We also informed Yoga Alliance about the incidents which happened during our TTC.

​

After we tried to register a second time, our applications got declined again. This time the school gave different reasons and invented stories about our behaviour, which are not true. I felt very upsed beeing accused of those things I never did and which are not true. At the same time, Yoga Alliance wrote us, that they decided to leave the school the final decision to determine whether to issue a certificate of completion to their students.

​

This seemes very strange, because we actually got our certificates on our last day of the TTC."

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